Pro-Russian activists welcomed Ukrainian refugees to Portugal, sparking controversy there. Setubal City Hall, affected by the scandal, has taken action.
Controversy erupted in Portugal on Friday after press reports revealed that Ukrainian refugees were being hosted by pro-Russian activists. According to the weekly Expresso, a prominent member of the Portuguese-based Russian community and his wife, who works for Setúbal City Hall, attended the reception of at least 160 Ukrainian refugees.
According to a Ukrainian refugee who testified for this newspaper, the couple specifically asked her where the remaining family members in Ukraine were after the invasion that Moscow launched on February 24. In the face of the outcry, Setubal City Hall responded with a press release announcing that this Russian official would be removed from teams taking in Ukrainian refugees.
“It’s the same all over Europe”
In early April, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Lisbon, Inna Ohnivets, said in an interview with CNN Portugal that “pro-Russian organizations” had infiltrated reception facilities for refugees.
“As soon as the refugees arrived in Portugal in March, we were warned that some were taken in by pro-Russian elements posing as members of international or even Ukrainian organizations,” said the President of the Union of Ukrainians in Portugal, Pavlo Sadoka.
“It’s the same all over Europe,” he assured the Lusa agency after talks with similar associations in other countries.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Portugal has taken in more than 33,000 Ukrainian refugees, doubling the size of this immigrant community, which has become the second largest in the country.